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Monday, February 7, 2011

Super Bowl Commercials and Queries

One of the best parts about Super Bowl Sunday is the television commercials. It's the one time each year I don't mind watching them. And every year, I hope for funny and clever. This year, it occurred to me that Super Bowl Commercials are a lot like queries on steroids.

Just like an effective query to a literary agent, a Super Bowl commercial must have a hook and a voice; it must also dazzle within seconds and move the viewer to action. That's not so different from what writers hope to accomplish when they send a query to a literary agent, hoping to gain representation of their latest masterpiece. Fortunately, it doesn't cost $2.5 million for a minute of an agent's time.

This year, I loved the Bud Light commercials. So funny and clever. I wanted to love the new e-Trade baby commercial but it felt a little flat to me compared to prior ones. There were also a couple of cool car commercials, but what was up with that Adrien Brody commercial where he was singing to a beer glass in a French bistro?! Ooh, la la.

Did you watch the Super Bowl? Which commercials dazzled you? And, jeez, what a game! Hope you had a chance to watch. Go Packers!

17 comments:

I was rolling about the Doritos commercials, where the guy licks the dorito crumbs off that guys fingers! LOL. Then he says "cheese!"Anyway, Tina Whittle gave me your web address. She just got herself published and I'm starting on the road to publishing my first novel. (a sort of YA paranormal romance book.) So I thought I'd introduce myself. "Hi"~heatheraine.blogspot.com

We only watch one football game a year, and this is it. I loved the car commercial that started in the desert and ended in the parking lot of a school. Very disappointed in Groupon's icky exploitation of Tibet. That could have been a good idea.

I wasn't overly impressed with this years commercials. There have been years when we rolled on the floor. Some of them were good. The game was good. Glad the Packers finally got their win. Halftime wasn't too bad although I noticed so many people were unimpressed. What's that saying? You can please some of the people some of the time?

I didn't find this year's commercials to be as good as in the past. I usually love the etrade commercials but not so much this year. And most seemed like they were going for shock value over humor. Maybe it was just me...

I didn't watch the game at all and didn't see any of the commercials but Maurice showed me the one of the little boy in the Darth Vader costume. HE's trying to get something to move with the force... his dad comes home with the VW and uses his key to start the car. The kid is so happy! So cute!!!

But I agree! A query is like a commercial. It has to be well written and to the point. It has to be the best of what you have to offer in a short time frame.

It's very interesting to me that everyone listed a different commercial as a fave. Did you notice that? It's like everyone (sort of like agents too, I suppose) have different emotional buttons. Commercials, like queries, are subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? ;-)